Glade Limited-Edition Holidays Candles: Pomegranate & Cranberries, Fresh Pine & Cedar {Home Fragrance Reviews}

The Glade folks sent me a couple of their new candles, namely Pomegranate & Cranberries, Fresh Pine & Cedar and Jasmine & Wild Orchid from The Fragrance Collection. I haven't tried the latter yet but thought better to plan ahead for the Holidays. So, I wanted to let you know that I think that especially Pomegranate & Cranberries is a great choice for an affordable, festive holiday-feeling candle and not just because it is colored red. Fresh Pine & Cedar, which I thought at first would be wafting more of the note of Christmas turned out to be less atmospheric than Pomegranate & Cranberries.

The first one is very good, even great - I would offer it to friends and family or recommend it -  the other one, good - I would smell it and find it pleasant but would not buy it myself or recommend it over other candles necessarily and I will explain why...

 

The double edge that Pomegranate & Cranberries has over Fresh Pine & Cedar is that it is a warm, cozy scent with a hidden freshness to it. In other words, it double tasks. Unadvertised but present in the composition is an evergreen facet that helps set a Holiday tone and subtly refreshes the atmosphere at the same time. This accord is called "frosted pomegranates" by Glade. The other edge is has is that it is almost poetic, evocatively 3-D and certainly very homey.




The proof is in the pudding; Pomegranate & Cranberries elicited Wow! comments from the other members of the household upon entering the room in which it was burning. Even the cat meowed its approval.

By that I mean that everyone felt relaxed, sniffed harder, noticed the scent and made flattering comments such as Mmm, it smells good in here. Big winner.

I personally was struck by how Christmas-y Pomegranate felt, rather than just fruity, how diffusive and atmospheric. It just felt like the morning of Christmas. For this reason I am featuring it with its own picture.

Fresh Pine & Cedar smells good. I was also impressed in the beginning. You are able to discern the seductively dry accent of cedar and the pine but all in all I thought that it did not have the atmospheric power of Pomegranate & Cranberries, this ability to suddenly transport you to another time and day. Also, despite the use of "fresh" in its name, it is actually less fresh than its companion candle and goes in fact in the direction of a heavier oriental. Indeed, Glade mentions notes of amber and vanilla. The pine after a while tends to smell a bit soapy, a bit like Herbal Essences shampoo or Babedas bubble bath, which might be what the adjective "clean" in the ad copy is describing.

I personally prefer the suggestion of wintry winter rather than that of heavy velvet curtains trapping perfume and a whiff of cleanliness from the bathroom. Pomegranate opens up the space, makes it a bit more poetic and oh-so cozy. Pine tended to create a more confined climate.

They retail for $ 8,99 each and are limited-editions.

I was not familiar with Glade candles and was glad to be able to test them. They are cheap in price but not in scent. They do not smell waxy, smoke or burn too fast. The one potential downside I see is that they cannot burn uninterrupted for hours and hours on. I think that 4 hours might be a good time period. There comes a time when the wicks start asking for mercy and request being saved from drowning. But other than that they perform very well. In fact I would point out that the candles are diffusive enough that you can use them even cold without their lids on to perfume a room.